USS Zumwalt Completes Generator Light-Off

The US Navy’s Zumwalt class (DDG 1000) destroyer program continues to make significant progress achieving key shipbuilding milestones, completing ship generator light-off Sept. 23 for the first-of-class ship, the future USS Zumwalt.

DDG 1000 is 92 percent complete and currently in the test and activation phase of construction at General Dynamics, Bath Iron Works. The ship is successfully activating its fuel systems, advanced induction motors (AIM) and generators, with fuel onload and AIM light-off completed in July.

“Light-off of DDG 1000’s generators is a critical step forward in the activation, test, and trials of the ship’s systems,” said Capt. Jim Downey, DDG 1000 program manager. “With deliberate and incremental test and activation, the DDG 1000 team is systematically retiring risk and preparing this highly complex ship for at-sea testing and eventual transfer to the fleet.”

Test and activation of the ship’s systems will steadily continue, with activation of the ship’s computer system, the Total Ship Computing Environment planned for later this fall. Zumwalt will begin at-sea testing in 2015 off the coast of Maine and is expected to arrive in San Diego, in the 2016 timeframe for an extensive period of operational integration with the fleet.

Upon entry into the fleet, Zumwalt-class destroyers will be multi-mission surface combatants designed to fulfill volume firepower and precision strike requirements.

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Press Release, September 26, 2014; Image: US Navy